Senior Joanna Snyder scored a career high 23 points as the Ohio Northern women's basketball team opened their 2012-13 season with a dominating 67-48 victory over Lake Forest (Ill.) at the McWillimas Classic hosted by Washington University (Mo.).
ONU now stands at 1-0 on the season, while the Foresters fall to 0-1.
Northern advances to the championship game, which will be played tomorrow at 7 pm CST against either No. 9 Washington Universtiy (Mo.) or Buena Vista (Ia.).
Snyder scored her 23 points on 10-of-19 shooting. She also grabbed four rebounds.
Senior Morgan Dumbaugh added 12 points and freshman Brooke Espenschied added 10 points.
Senior Katie Mengos did a little bit of everything for the Polar Bears scoring 10 points, grabbing nine rebounds and dishing out seven assists.
Liz Radtke led Lake Forest with 16 points.
Northern started out the game on an 11-2 run to open up an early lead.The Polar Bears would then go on a 13-2 midway through the first half to expand their lead to 30-13.
Snyder scored six points, Espenschied added three more,while sophomore Jordan Kimes and Dumbaugh added two points as Northern blew the game open.
Espenschied score on a layup with four seconds left in the half to allow the Polar Bears to take a 37-17 lead into the half.
Northern came out of the break firing and used a 7-0 run to expand their lead to 44-17 on a Dumbaugh layup with 17:08 to play. A jumper by Snyder at the 15:30 mark made it 47-19 and gave the Polar Bears their largest lead of the game.
Lake Forest would be unable to get back into the game, allowing the Polar Bears their first win of the season. ONU shot 29-of-69 (42.0 percent) from the field, while the Foresters were 19-of-50 (38.0 percent).
The Foresters turned the ball over 24 times compared to 19 for ONU. Northern dominated the rebounding battle, holding a 45-30 margin and an 18-8 advanatge in offensive rebounds.
